Where Is Joel?

3 years ago me and my roommate, James Robert (aka Jim Bob) Bacon made an unwise bet. Jimmy (aka James) bet me that by summer he would have a more cut six pack than me. He was on and the loser would have to try and eat 25000 calories (or about 110 mars bars) in one day.  Jimbo (aka Jimmy) lost.

The next year James (aka Jimmy Rob…  ok, I’ll stop this. James, you have a silly name) once again proposed we make a bet. Though I was reticent James insisted and we went ahead. The loser had to shave half of his head for 2 weeks.  Once again James lost.

Last weekend I was in Calgary visiting the Fam and some friends and James yet *again* proposed we have another bet.  I have to admit, I’m getting a bit tired of them. During the time they are one I’m not really able to eat what I want and constantly fret about abs making me that vain idiot everyone loves to hate who is constantly checking out their tummy in the mirror. The whole experience is generally negative. To add insult to injury the loser this year has to get a belly button piercing.  After enough pestering however I gave in and said I’d do the bet again this year.  …

…

So on June 21st if all does not go well I’ll have a belly button ring. … I’m pretty sure belly button rings are the piercing equivalent of a guy getting a tramp stamp. I think this might be because the only way to expose either of these body modifications to the world is to wear a midriff revealing shirt, which is not particularly cool for guys to do.  This guy seems to pull it off though (Granted he’s like 3 years old and probably Japanese, where everything is weird) which gives me a little hope for the loser.Wish me luck all!!

Joel Out.

Everyone should check out TheSixtyOne if they like music.  That’s it.  It’s awesome. It’s kind of digg for music, and lets you discover all sorts of artists that don’t have actual labels but are in fact amazing.  It also has some wicked photography which makes me very happy.  It’s not super duper intuitive to use, but totally worth it.  If y’all want to find me I’m jacksonjoel.  That’s all.

Have you ever called Edmonton Transit bus link to find a stop times???  It’s pretty much a huge pain.

• Step 1: Navigate stupid voice menu system
• Step 2: “What is your bus number?” (Entering bus number)
• Step 3: “You have entered bus stop number XXXX … … … … … … … At 109 st…. … … … ..And etc.”

Overall sucky. So it’s been made better.  Just txt your bus stop number to (858) 779-4952 and get the next 6 buses stopping at your stop. No stupid menus.  Of course if you happen to be on Rogers/Fido they will charge you 25 cents because they are jerks (Ok,  it’s because *for now* we have an american #. But they’re still jerks because Telus/Bell won’t bother you), so try our twitter interface.  Tweet your bus stop # to @etsinfo and we’ll get right back to you. Sorry buslink, but we’re breaking up.

Sean wrote a more informative description of what we built here.  Happy busing, and don’t be too harsh, it’s just in beta!

Joel

ps. 100 posts!

I’ve been thinking about what I wrote about beamdog the other day. Iphone store for the pc. It got me pondering what the 95% use-case for the pc really is. I have a friend (see his blog, acts_as_informative) who always claims apple does so well because they hit the 95% use-case really well and just let the others who aren’t in that use case just go do their own thing.

This makes sense, so I’ve been pondering what I think the perfect computer for the 95% really is.

1. I think it’s managed, like the iphone.  People never really break their iphones because they can only install trusted apps through the apple app store. Most people don’t need access to all sorts of crazy computery stuffs, they just need to have applications that work. Here enters beamdog on pc.  I think the ipad is a very interesting device in this respect, but I don’t think it can replace a pc with keyboard… yet.  The smart people at MS better be keeping their eyes on the ipad, because if they don’t they may very well find the paradigm of computing shifting out from under them and not be ready to move with it.
2. I think it’s mobile. Laptops overtook desktops because once people buy laptops they hang out wherever they are.  If I’m in the kitchen so is my laptop.  Maybe my desktop is a wee bit faster, but aside from gaming it doesn’t do anything that my laptop won’t. I’m just never going to walk to another room to use it when I can use the laptop that’s with me. The laptop is still not a mobile device, I need to carry it around with me everywhere in a backpack. Computers in the future will fit in my pocket.

Now, imagine if apple just stuck a monitor output and a keyboard input on an iphone, then beefed the iphone up a wee bit so it was a little faster. I could have my computer everywhere, I wouldn’t worry about it getting a virus, and for most people it covers what they do with their computer namely:

1. Music
2. Communication via twitter, facebook, email
3. Possibly some word processing if I’m in school. (Ok, not yet, but not far off)
4. Watching movies/tv
5. Sharing media (for example pictures, which I can…  joyously even take with this device)
6. Getting information from the internet like recipes or wikipedia use.
7. Even better, with internet storage like dropbox I don’t even need a big hard drive so the small iphone hd is perfect

An iphone costs 200$ with plan.  You might want 1-2 monitors around the house it could plug into if I wanted to do serious browsing for say another 300$ for 2 + 2 keyboards.  500$ is about the price of a current netbook.  I think maybe this is what apple is trying to do with the ipad, but it misses the key point of being more mobile than my laptop and I’m still really not sold on an onscreen keyboard for all of my input, but it *does* plug into a keyboard.  Just a few thoughts I thought I would puke up while waiting my turn to get on the computer I need in the lab.

Joel

A few days ago I attended Launch Party, a Startup Edmonton event which celebrated the young technology companies in our city. I thought I’d quickly chat about a few of the companies and my thoughts and excitement levels about them.

Beamdog: These guys want to distribute games online.  So they’re Steam?? If anyone from Edmonton has the clout to try and take on Steam it’s probably Trent Oster. I’m excited about beamdog because I think it can be so much more.  The model for distributing software that is based on walking into a store and buying something is eroding. Steam, the iphone app store and xbox live are all amazing demos of how successful an online software distribution model can be.  Making software easily accesible actually makes it cheaper as well because more people buy it so developers don’t have to  charge as much per copy to make the same profit.

If beamdog could become a windows app store that would be amazing. Right  now it’s a pain to find applications I want and I never know if the application I find is actually good so I have to ask all my friends if they’ve tried it. Managing software on your computer can also sometimes be a hassle.  Fingers crossed for beamdog!

Empire Avenue: Empire avenue lets you trade your friends like stocks. It seems like the final goal here is to create some kind of ad network that pays based on your “stock’s” value on empire avenue. If a lot of people read your blog then more people will buy your “stock” to get a piece of your advertising earnings driving the price of the stock up and ads on your site. It makes sense to use market forces to drive ad prices, and this is a really innovative way of doing this.  Despite this the site mostly feels like a gimmick because you can’t advertise with them yet so all you’re really doing is trading people stocks for no reason.  And doesn’t pay per click already solve the problem because if more people see your content online more people click?  Not sure how to feel about this company, but there is a *ton* of money in online advertising and if they execute this properly then they could be very successful.  On the other hand I already feel alienated because there really doesn’t seem to be any point to being on their site right now.

Seek Your Own Proof: They make an online sciency carmen sandiegoy game for kids.  It’s awesome and I’ll fight anyone who says it isn’t. In an age where we are moving more and more toward graphically intensive arcade games it’s refreshing to see someone making something fun and educational for kids!  Good work Ken & company.

Lots of other local startups were there.  To see them all check Mac’s blog post on the event. I’m not fully sold on Edmonton ever becoming a “silicon valley north” like some of the startup crew seem to be around here, but this kind of effort is at least helping raise awareness about good local companies and there is always room for good companies making good products in any economy in any location.